The Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) has announced the formation of the exciting new African Nations League and also guarantees that CAF will host a world class senior national team competition in Africa every year, in which the best African football players, who play in the best football leagues in the world, will participate. CAF will partner with FIFA on the African Nations League.
During the year of the FIFA World Cup, the 9 or 10 African senior national teams that have qualified for the World Cup will focus and prepare for the FIFA World Cup, and there will not be an African Senior National Team Competition.
The President of CAF, Dr Patrice Motsepe, said: “We are excited about the new changes that we have introduced, which will make African senior national team competitions amongst the best in the world, with the best African football players who play in the best leagues in the world participating every year.
“During the year of the FIFA World Cup, CAF will not host an African senior national team Competition to enable the 9 or 10 African countries that will be participating in the FIFA World Cup to focus on preparing for the World Cup. The new changes will also result in significant financial and commercial benefits for each of the football federations that represents the 54 African countries that are members of CAF.
“The restructuring of the CAF Senior National Team Competitions and the $1 billion tender that we have initiated will enable CAF to contribute $1 million every year to each of the 54 CAF Member Associations. This is 5 times more than the $200,000 which each Member Association used to receive before the current CAF leadership was introduced. We will allocate a substantial amount of financial and other resources to training and developing young boys and girls football players, as this is amongst the best investment we can make for the future of African football.
“The CAF Youth Competitions for boys and girls, Women and Men Club Football in each of our 54 Member Associations, and the Zonal or Regional Football Competitions, will all receive increased financial and other resources. Financial resources will also be allocated to paying competitive salaries to CAF employees.
“I am also pleased to announce that the CAF Champions League and Confederations’ Cup will receive increased prize monies, which will be announced after the TotalEnergies CAF AFCON Morocco 2025.
“Another important benefit of the restructuring and the new changes in African Senior National Team Competitions is the alignment and synchronisation of football fixtures worldwide, which we have been working on with FIFA and other stakeholders. This alignment or synchronisation will benefit CAF and African football players who play in the best football leagues worldwide.
“We want to ensure that African football players do not find themselves (as has often been the case) in a calendar or fixture conflict between their football clubs and their national teams. The new changes were also introduced after ongoing discussions with CAF’s sponsors, partners and other stakeholders. I am confident that African football will benefit enormously from the new changes that we have introduced. The future of African football is bright.”
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